Time for a bigger trophy shelf!!!

Picture by Maddi Sheridan

Thomas with his first place trophy!!!

Thomas and his "friend" after receiving their first place trophies. Awwwww they are so cute!!!

Thomas swam in the Kearns Holiday Open today and yesterday. He did amazing as usual. He ended up winning the 100 & 200 Fly, the 200 Breast, 200 IM and 400 IM. He walked away with the first place High Points Trophy and got to have his picture taken to be put in next years program as the winner in each of those events and the high points winner.
We had to drive in a super bad snow storm coming home last night and the roads were still not very clear today but it was worth it to have him do so good. He is really doing amazing right now but if you see how hard he works it all makes sense! He ALWAYS makes every practice and works his butt off every time. The next month he will be gearing up for the High School Championships and then the Senior State Championships but by then he will have aged up to 15 and be swimming with the big boys.
So after a 2 day meet and winning the whole show, you would think that he would want to sleep in tomorrow morning.......

but, NO...

He will be up by 6:30...

sitting in the kitchen...

waiting for Kevin to give him a ride to practice.

WAY TO GO THOMAS!!! YOU ARE AMAZING!!!

Big Mistake!

Ever since Toy Story 3 came out in theaters I have wanted to see it, but ever since it came out I have also been avoiding it. The plan was to go see it before Mitch left on his mission. He ended up going and taking Maddi and the boys. He came home and informed me that I would cry my eyes out when I saw it. Well Christmas Eve I made the mistake of thinking it would be a good time to watch it. It wasn't. Mitch was right, I cried my eyes out and more! Toy Story has always been a favorite of Mitchell's and watching the little boy Andy grow up and leave home was more than I could take. It was all too close to home. My kids have grown up way too fast. Mitch is in a different country, Maddi is getting ready to leave home for college. Thomas will be able to start learning to drive a car in 2 months and Jacob just isn't a baby anymore. Time moves so fast. It is hard to believe that I sent Mitch off a boy and he will return a man. I sent a little Woody doll in Mitchell's suitcase when he left for Peru. I noticed in the pictures he sends home that Woody is watching over him in Peru when I can't be. Now if I can just talk Maddi into not leaving home .......

Christmas 2010

What a crazy busy fun filled month. We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family in our lives. This entire month was a blur from start to finish and there was not a lot of time to blog about it. Christmas day we were up dark and early in anticipation for Elder Mitch's Christmas call. We were expecting him to call at 7 am but were excited when the phone rang at 6:30. It was a little hard to hear him, it sounded like he was talking through a tube but it was SO fun to be able to talk to him and have him answer questions and be able to talk to everyone. He said that they had a nice dinner in Huancayo on Christmas Eve with turkey and hamburgers...what a combo!!! Then they went on to the roof and watched fireworks at midnight. He told us they were excited to have 5 baptisms that day! He was able to talk for almost one hour before his calling card ended and just cut us off. It was a really hard way to end the call and I was in tears most of the rest of the day but I am really grateful we were able to hear his voice even if it was just for a little while. Hopefully we will be getting our regular e mail tomorrow!!!!

Maddi got her first big white envelope with her first acceptance letter. This one is for Weber State. She is anxiously awaiting the next one for Dixie State where she really wants to go. I am voting for Weber. I'm not too sure I can handle two kids being gone! At least I could call her and go see her whenever I wanted too.I would still miss her a ton!
Good job Maddi!!!

Moving on to Christmas!!!

The ground outside is covered in snow and the kids were itching to put up the tree so up it went! Every year the kids get a new ornament to put on the tree so they each have their own box to put up of their very own ornaments. I did O.K until I opened up Mitchell's box and then I lost it! It seems so strange to not have him here to do these family things! He even got his own ornament this year even though he is far away. Maddi's ornament is a pair of cowboy boots, Thomas got a Texas Longhorns one( I love E bay!) and Jacob got a little baseball player. I guess there is no turning back now... Christmas time is here!!!

Over the river and through the woods.......

On our way!!!

Mema and Grandpa with Mini Mitch

We had the kids make Indian or turkey hats to keep them busy so we made one for Mini Mitch too!

Mini Mitch doesn't have quite the appetite as the real Mitch so we had A LOT of mashed potatoes left over!

The cute cousins and their creative hats!

We, O.K I decided to not have Thanksgiving at our house this year because I was missing Elder Sheridan to much and didn't want to be home bawling the whole day. So we packed up and headed south, leaving the snow and cold for sunshine and cold for a few days. My brother decided to go down also so we had a packed house but it was SUPER fun. The kids had a great time just hanging out with each other and Thanksgiving dinner was AMAZING as always! Thanks Mom!!!
Little did we know that my Dad had just been checked out of the hospital that morning. He had to have another stent put in for another blocked artery. So what says recovery more than having 10 people(six of those being kids) crash at your house the day you get out of the hospital! They didn't tell us because they knew we would have stayed home, and they were right but I am so glad we were able to go . It wasn't nearly as loud and hectic as I thought it was going to be ( it probably was for grandpa though!)
We decided to take Mitch with us on the trip. Kevin's mom told us about a friend of hers that made a flat missionary( like the book Flat Stanley) and takes it with them and takes pictures to send to their missionary. I thought that would be fun so we made a mini Mitch to go on our adventures with us so he could participate in all of the Thanksgiving fun!
We had a really great time and I am so thankful for parents who do so much for us and give our kids awesome memories like we had growing up ! Thanks Mom and Dad for putting up with us! It was so much fun!

Sadies

In Mitchell's last e mail home he mentioned Maddi fingers are wrong in her Spiderman web slinging picture from the Sadie's dance at WX. So here is the picture from the dance! Also check out Mitchell's blog HERE to see how GREAT he is doing and how tall he looks next to the little Peruvian family... he looks like a GIANT!